With Toronto Tech Week about to get started this upcoming Monday, BarCamp Toronto presents the "unofficial un-launch unconference" this Saturday at the University of Toronto with a full day of sharing of innovative ideas and discussion of current issues. As per the BarCamp mantra, there are no spectators, only participants, so be prepared to have your voice heard.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the event, BarCamp is an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees. This Saturday's event will begin at 9:30am in the Bissel Building at UofT.

This time, BarCamp is encouraging new participants and hope to bring out a diverse crowd that haven't yet shared in the unconference experience. According to Mark Kuznicki, an organizer for this Saturday's event:

If you've never attended an unconference before, you really need to try it. Once you've had an unconference, your expectations for what a conference should be will never be the same. Participants only. Bring a presentation you want to share, or sometimes participation means active listening, engaging presenters, bringing a question you want to explore or an intention to meet some like-minded folk. It's about sharing and learning in an open creative environment.

Mark himself will be facilitating a conversation about the future of Mozilla as a product or a platform, based on Chris Messina's recent rant on the subject.

Will Pate, co-host of the ever-popular CommandN and one of the organizers for this Saturday's event, is putting out a special call for blogTO readers:

I was lucky enough to attend the first BarCamp in the summer of 2005 in Palo Alto. Since then BarCamps have become a global movement, with hundreds of community run events all over the world. Being a first time organizer of a BarCamp, I'm making a call to those that haven't attended before to come on out. If you're a blogTO reader, give me a high five and let me know blogTO is representin'!

Will's a really nice guy. Don't disappoint him and be sure to give him a high five this Saturday. For more information about BarCamp Toronto4 or to register, visit the BarCamp wiki.

(Photo by Bryce Johnson.)